Common heart conditions that can cause anxiety: mitral valve prolapse and high blood pressure.

Infections and anxiety: Lyme disease, PANDAs

Over-the counter drugs that cause anxiety: lidocaine, birth control pills and more

Space-related phobias: Vestibular/balance and the inner ear

Anxiety and photosensitivity

Here are some snippets from our interview:

I think my experience is very, very common, where people are in a state of distress, they’re anxious, they’re fatigued, they’re not feeling well, and doctors don’t diagnose what their problem is. And therefore, they’re told that their problem is all in their head and put on psychotropic medication, when indeed, as it turns out, they may have some physical problem that’s causing their symptoms.

Say someone has panic attacks, which is not uncommon, and particularly, panic attacks that come out of the blue out of nowhere. All of a sudden, you know, one day you get a panic attack. Okay, a wave of panic overcomes you, your heart races, your pulse throbs, the world spins, you can hardly catch your breath, you feel as if you’re dying, you feel this horrible profound dread, even as if you’re losing your mind. So what do you do? You assume it’s psychological, so you go see a psychiatrist and they diagnose you with panic disorder, and they give you psychotropic medication, and usually these drugs do do what they’re designed to do, and they do alleviate the panic, and so you think, okay, it’s psychological.

But, you know, first of all, it may not disappear or it may come back but not as strong, because actually lots of physical conditions can cause the same symptoms and that includes hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.